CPU thoughts

[tonymadge]

Ok I have been down this road a few times but bear with me.... I am nearing the point of buying or buildinga PC.


AMD Phenom x 4 II 955 3.2Ghz
Intel E8600 x 2 3.3Ghz
Intel Q9650 X 4 3Ghz
Intel i7 X 4 2.66Ghz

Video, ATI 4850 512Mb
Nvidia GTS/GTX 1Mb

Motherboard I like ASUS but if I went for Intel chip it would I guess be better to have the Intel chipset rather than Nvidia chipset.
Anyway thoughts as I am keen on the i7 but lean towards the E8600/E8500 but the new 3.2Ghz AMD is tempting.......
Video card is budget locked and both of these cards will cope easilly with what there is out there at the moment. I am not a great game player and besides FS9..FSX at a push! I use COD4 which all run fine on the 800GTS I have at present.

[Rick Piper]

Hi Tony

the I7 would be the best but the most expensive.
the Q9650 is the best performance for the money in FSX along with the 8800GTS/GTX (9800GTS/GTX is slower for FSX)

Intel Chipset motherboard for Intel chip
Nvidia chipset for AMD chip

i presume you mean 1 GB not 1 MB :roll:

Regards
Rick

[DaveB]

I've been wondering about this too Tony but there are too many things I can't get my head around

Will a dualcore/quadcore CPU be fully utilised on a 32-bit OS.. eg, WinXP Home (non 64bit)?? My dualcore setup is faster than the XP3200 it replaced though not by as big a margin as you'd imagine. Clock speeds on the 3200 and E6600 are give or take the same so other areas of improvement can be put down to the drives (both sataII), the ram (Crucial Ballistix) and the graphics card which has twice the ram (512mb). Obviously, improvements in technology will also eek a few more useable cycles out of what's available but at the end of the day.. is the dualcore actually running both cores or poodling along using 1 as neither the OS or progs I throw at it (with the possible exception of FSX) know how to access both cores :roll:

I apologise for the dumb question but I really don't know the answer

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[tonymadge]

Dave not a dumb question at all, thanks Rick for some ideas.
I think like Dave that this is aminefield with far too many options, I liked it a few years ago when it was either a P4 or a AMD 3200, the i7 I know is fast but pound for pound performance in games etc the E8500 which can clock upto 4ghz on air, is a cracking performer. But AMD releasing the Phenom has again made me look at them. However the Q9650 is also overclockable... ohhh too many choices and always worried about taking the wrong one
To be honest I will use FS9 mostly for entertainment purposes...

[Chris Sykes]

Hi Tony, im going to say that there prob is no need to change ur graphics card, possibly get another 8800 GTS 512 to run in SLI, which does work wonders in FSX! Im on a E8500 but am looking at a quad core whn i can afford it...

Dave, programms like FSX can utalise multi core CPU's because they have been written to, such programs like Office 2000 wont, so they will only run on one core...

[Techy111]

Yup...i'm with Rick here....gonna buy a Q9650 at the end of the month to go with my 2 8800GTX cards....

Then i'll have an old E6750 chip to throw away.... ;-)

Tony

[Rick Piper]

Hi Techy

feel free to throw the E6750 this way mate

That would do Tony M if he only wants to fly FS9

If it was a quad i would but that one but a dual is not really needed here as it's not as good for compiling models into FSX.

Regards
Rick

[Techy111]

No probs....it runs my FS9 all maxed out.....its Tony's if he wants it....

Tony

[DaveB]

Dave, programms like FSX can utalise multi core CPU's because they have been written to, such programs like Office 2000 wont, so they will only run on one core...

So basically, on WinXP (32bit).. the only thing using both cores on that pc is FSX (I didn't mention Cod4.. not sure what they do) I suppose the problem these days is that if you want to go 'faster'.. you have no choice but to buy a dual/quad core CPU regardless of what OS you use as single core chips have left the building. Doesn't it seem a b1oody waste :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[nigelb]

Not entirly a waste, Dave. From what i understand (not that much) even if the program your running only uses one core, the other core can handle system tasks. For example if FS9 hangs on the core it is using, the other core can handle whatever machinations the system needs to perform - such as if you elect tp press CTRL-ALT-Del. Now you can obviously still do that on a single core system, but I bet it works a lot faster on a duel core.

Nigel²